My Server Died

[Guest]

I had this server working properly on my LAN for a long time. Over a year,
maybe 2 years. I wanted to use VPN and needed to add another NIC card. I have
a single 3COM 3c905B card and was adding another. First I just installed the
card and started having troubles with the server seeing both cards at the
same time. 3COM said to install older versions of the card first, then newer
version last. So I uninstalled the cards in device manager, shut down, took
the cards out and rebooted.

I did the 3COM Pre-Install, shut down and installed the oldest version of
the NIC card, rebooted, I was at the "Preparing Network Connections" screen
for a long long time, then logged on to the desktop and now I cant get to
Active Directory, DHCP or anything.

I get errors in Active Directory that says the "Enterprise is not available"
and "Workstation driver is not installed".

I tried putting the original NIC card in and loading the software and I can
access my LAN, (After using my router as DHCP) and the internet, etc. but I
cannot install Active Directory, Uninstall it or nothing.

I went into Add/Remove Windows components and removed all Networking
Services except for TCPIP. I have ran dcpromo from the command line, but I
can't uninstall Active Directory at all, it tells me it failed to find a
suitable domain controller and when I tell it this server is the last domain
controller on the domain it can't find the domain and wont uninstall.

I don't know what to do at this point short of re-installing, which I hate
to do. Maybe it's just something simple I am overlooking?

When I am in Administrative tools clicking on Active Directory Domains and
Trusts I get the error "Configuration info is not available. The workstation
driver is not installed". When I try to connect to a domain I get the error
"The interface is unknown".

When I click on sites and services I get the error "Naming info cannot be
located because the workstation driver is not installed". When I try to
connect to a domain I get the error "The interface is unknown".

When I click on Users and Computers I get the error "Naming info cannot be
located because the workstation driver is not installed." When I try to
connect to a domain I get the error "The interface is unknown".

When I click on DHCP I can add the oriinal DHCP server, but it errors with
cannot find the server. I checked component services and DHCP is not running
and it is set to automatic and when I try to start it I get error 20013.

When I try to start the DNS server I get the error "1075, the dependancy
service does not exist or is marked for deletion". Dependancy is RPC, which
is up and running.

This server is a domain controller and it is the only server on the LAN.
Maybe when it lost connection with the LAN it went bonkers and suffered brain
damage or something?

Thanks for any help and direction.

Wes

 

[stuart]

Sounds like you've got yourself into a bit of bother...

First, make sure you have your network settings back to how they were -
make sure that you're using the same ip/subnet/gateway addresses. Also
make sure you've got the Client for Microsoft Networks and File and
Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks installed.

Once you've got that back to how it was - try starting the services and
see if it helps. I think you'll still have some issues to work through,
especially getting your DNS working properly - this is key to getting
your AD back up and running.

Let us know how you get on...

 

[Guest]

Thanks Stuart. I'll work on those things then let you know. I am going to
write a step by step if I figure this out.

Wes

 

[Guest]

Well it's done and back on line. I found all the information I needed to get
it up and running on the MS website...but it wasn't a simple task.

It basically involved doing a complete restore of the drive including
services by hitting F8 at startup and then booting to the restore console for
Domain Controllers). That got my active directory back but the DHCP was still
hosed. I finally ended up deleting all the folders under winnt\system32\DHCP
(Leaving DHCP) and setting the flag in the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters -
RestoreFlaf REG_DWORD value to "1".

Then rebooting....

That got me going.

Here are the references to the MS articles.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;173396
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/events/windows2000srv/tnt1-76.mspx

I hope this helps somebody.

Wes